Bidding on Ebay. I can't stand the pressure! (1 Viewer)

[Elizabeth S]

Over a year ago, I used to win auctions by manually sniping (there's no thrill in letting a program do it for you). (I did have instances where the dial-up was so slow that the auction ended right before my bid went through.) Recently, though, I find I'm not willing to sit around on a computer waiting for the end of an auction -- I might place my highest bid within the last 12 hours of an auction and log on later to see if I won or not.

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

The idea of sniping is to pay the least amount while winning the auction. Bidding early allows two things: first, being outbid by someone who keeps shipping away at your maximum, second, the use of shills to ramp up your price with no intent to buy. It also avoids getting into a bidding war.

If I'm serious about something, I'll wait until late in the auction to bid, by which time the item is either mine for the taking, or is overpriced.

For more general items, I'll bid what I want to pay and leave it. If I get outbid, the other guy is paying more than I'm willing to.

 

[DaveNel]

I only watch auctions and bid If I am there to control it.
I limit myself to 1 hour a day and look and watch. sometimes if something catches my eyes I will stay a little longer or come back later to bid on something.

But I never bid till the last few seconds, Because you bid. someone else will bid then its just back an forth. I always wait and sneak a bid in just in time that no one can bid behind me

And it works 99% of the time.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I just thought of a title for a great country song, it's called 'Sitten my life away on ebay...'. It's the next No.1 single by Clint Black.

I think that if I do decide to bid in the future, it will be at the last minute of an auction. But it won't be for awhile.

RichP,
I don't intend to sound angry here, but please don't think that i'm some sort of a sucker because I can't control my impulses sometimes. I'm finished ramping up prices for sellers. I know you were just being light hearted, but in between the lines their was just something that bothered me about your post.

If I wait for the final moment to bid, I figured this will eliminate the pressure of waiting also, instead of waiting for days, it'll only be for a minuet or so. BTW, I use MSN-TV service which is slower than molassis in winter with ebay, so waiting until the last few seconds to place a bid isn't feasable for me.

 

[DaveNel]

Johm

If you bid with a system like that, you can wait till the last few minutes. What you have to do is hit your refresh button and look at the time. And see what the time is before you refresh and the time after you refresh. Doing that you will get a timeframe as to when to bid so you will have enough time to put in a bid as well making sure no one bids behind you and steals the auction

 

[Ash Williams]

I don't bid anymore either. I'm "Buy-it-Now" only. You can never get a decent price these days. For some reason people like paying more for something then what it's worth. It's probably because they don't like to lose.

 

[DaveGTP]

Yeah I find ebay is no longer worth it. Everything sells for more than you can get it somewhere else on the internet. Best example was - somebody posted a Walmart giftcard that sold for more than its face value. In fact, the total plus shipping was more than it would cost to get it straight from Walmart.com. There's morons out there, I tell you.

Ebay is limited to hardcover book scrounging and 8-bit NES game stuff for me these days

 

[Carl Miller]

The only other thing about bidding on eBay that hasn't been said already is to always remember that the items you don't win will probably be made available again. There are very few one of a kinds on eBay.

 

[DaveNel]

Yep and the one of a kinds on ebay are prolley out of most of our price range

 

[MikeH1]

I just recently dived into the world of ebay and bought some used Rambus (RD) ram from the site, a new external 250 Gb Hard Drive and a Firewire/USB 2 card. I got great deals on all of them, although like some others prefer the "Buy it Now" way of doing things instead of bidding.

 

[Dave_Hughes]

My least favorite event is when the seller sells locally for less than the buy-it-now price after the auction has started. Definition of auction: where the "winner" pays more for an item than everybody else thinks it is worth.

 

[DaveNel]

Well actually most the time he doesnt sell it, states he did but when crybaby sellers dont get what they want for something they will say sold it local, its not working, something happend this that and the other.. Just another way to cheat the customer......

I have bid on items and at the last couple hours either ebay cancels it, the customer cancels it, or after item was won they say they cant find it, it broke, someone took it, just alot of Hogwash..

But I am still a user of ebay

 

[DaveGTP]

How much better of a price were they than Newegg.com? I find the prices are the almost as much or sometimes even higher.

Example: Radeon 9800 pro 128MB (new in retail box).

Ebay: $180-$220 + $10-$12 shipping (the sub $200 prices being from less reputable sellers). General selling price - $200 + $12 shipping.
Newegg: $234 Shipped

 

[DaveNel]

Really just go in and have fun, There is no pressure to bidding. Either you win or you dont..

 

[Ted Lee]

both excellent quotes worth repeating.

don't beat yourself up over this stuff. it's just stuff anyway. if you don't get it...move on...and try again. it's not like you're gonna die if you don't get the item at the price you want.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I wish it were that easy for me, guys, I really do.

However, you don't know how I am, when I want something really badly, I won't stop until I have it in my possesion. Hell, their are things I never got that I wanted when I was a kid that still irks the shit out of me when I get to thinking about them.

I really think that i'll just stick to 'buy it now' items, things were alot less complicated when I was just doing that.

 

[Malcolm R]

Then just put in a proxy of $5,000 and sit back and relax.

You'll win.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Malcolm,
call me the most gullible man on Earth and sit back and have the biggest laugh of the year at my expense, but are you serious?

Really, are you? Is it possible to bid an insane amount of money and then remain undefeated? Won't that raise the price of the item?

 

[Brian Perry]

I think I was just hosed on an auction, on the sell side.

I was selling a beautiful Leica camera with lenses and the bidding was up to about $700 (from bidders who had decent feedback history) when at the last minute two users with 0 feedback came in and raised the bidding to $800, which is where the auction ended.

Now I guess it is possible that the high bidder is legit, but I have a feeling it was a prank. I'll have to wait a few days to find out. If it is a bogus high bid, the guy should be strung up by the balls...

 

[MikeH1]

I looked at Newegg too and there are some great deals to be had there. Unfortenetly, they don't ship to Canada and IIRC don't even take paypal. So I'm kind of limited as to where I can shop...